


Cosmic Railway

by luzisoo



Series: The Space Gang [1]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Alternate Universe - Space, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Do Kyungsoo | D.O/Kim Minseok | Xiumin, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:41:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26558311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luzisoo/pseuds/luzisoo
Summary: In which a Star finds his home.
Relationships: Kim Jongdae | Chen/Park Chanyeol
Series: The Space Gang [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2142306
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24
Collections: Lil' Something Fest 2020





	Cosmic Railway

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd, for the most part. Please be kind, English is not my first language.

_ “Please! Get in the pod!” Screams. An explosion. _

_ “I’m not leaving you behind, mother. Forget it.” Somewhere next to them, a building exploded, causing rubble to pour from the sky. A flash of Mother’s face, grey and ashy, tear tracks showing her natural skin colour underneath the debris. _

_ “You’ve always been stubborn, so much like your father…” Something glistened in her hand. He hadn’t had the time to see what it was before he felt a piercing pain on his neck. The world blackened around the edges of his vision. _

_ “I’m sorry, son… I hope we meet again. Soon. I won’t let your light die out.” _

_ A shove, and then cold. Sticky. Suffocating. _

_ “Mother… mother… mo-...” _

“-THER!” He screams, sitting up on the bed. He’s drenched in sweat, yet his body is still shivering with the phantom hold of the freezing nightmare. His lungs ache, forcing him into a spiralling state of hyperventilation where he tries to get rid of the memory of his trachea full of cryo-gel.

His hands, he looks at his hands, vision swimming. One finger, two fingers. Three, nine, ten. Ten fingers. His skin glistens with perspiration, and he wipes his hands on the sheets of his bed. 

“Jongdae?” A meek voice calls from the doorway to his room, and he snaps his head towards the sound. Chanyeol looks at him with concern and exhaustion written all over his features, coffee stains on his white shirt.

t the night shift again?” Jongdae mutters, pushing his sweat matted hair away from his forehead. Chanyeol makes himself at home in the room, having to duck his head to enter through the doorway. 

Damned Caprians and their height. 

“Yeah, Minseok is handling the cruiser for a bit, told me to go pick up some more coffee.” A pause. “I heard you scream again.”

Jongdae looks outside the little porthole window, focusing on the endless black abyss of the universe outside their small ship. He sees flashes of stars, explosions, supernovas, and he has to close his eyes to anchor himself. 

_ You’re not out there anymore. They’re not after you anymore. _

“We passed close to Antares’ Rest.” The taller speaks, almost conversationally, but Jongdae is much too familiar with his speech pattern to know this isn’t just another passing comment. He knows the accented drawl like the back of his hand, the body language as he keeps himself from reaching towards Jongdae in a feeble attempt at appearing nonchalant.

Something in Jongdae warms up.

“You think this is why your night terrors are flaring up?”

Jongdae doesn’t need to ask to know his eyes are twinkling with the dying fizzles of his home star, white flecks illuminating the otherwise golden irises. His freckles are probably glowing brighter, too, if the trajectory of Chanyeol’s unsettlingly white eyes over his face is anything to go by.

He wills himself to calm down once more.

“Maybe.” His voice is scratchy, raw from screaming in agony from the memories that keep haunting his sleep, and he clears his throat. Unprompted, Chanyeol reaches for the bottle of water in the nightstand and passes it to Jongdae.

“You know the Star Hunters will never get to you again, right? You’re safe with us.” Gone is the loud, boisterous edge to Chanyeol’s voice that Jongdae adores, replaced with concern and affection for the small star. Jongdae can only smile and accept the offered bottle, taking a long swig. 

He doesn’t know what to say. Never does when Chanyeol seems to look at him as if he single-handedly painted all the galaxies in the universe. 

Instead, Jongdae does what Jongdae does best. He glows from within, body growing warm. 

Chanyeol follows, circling his arms around the still trembling man. He is always helpless when it comes to Jongdae.

“What about Minseok’s coffee?”

“It can wait.”

A beep to Chanyeol’s wrist-com shows that  _ no,  _ it actually  _ cannot _ wait, and Jongdae breaks the hug with a laugh. “Let’s go. I won’t get any sleep either way, and I wouldn’t mind checking in with Minseok.”

If Chanyeol pouts at Jongdae’s back no one has to know. “But when we get back, we’ll continue this, right?” His tone, albeit wanting to seem playful, has a certain insecurity undertone to it. Jongdae’s mind provides him with all the times he’s evaded Chanyeol’s affections for the sake of his heart -  _ what he has instead of one, anyways  _ \- and he frowns with regret. His hand goes up to caress Chanyeol’s overgrown mass of curls, and nods. 

“Yes.”

That single word seems to uplift Chanyeol’s entire mood, and soon he’s bouncing up waiting for him by the door like one of those Terran puppies Baekhyun likes so much. Jongdae can’t help but smile and glow brighter.

If their hands brush against each other while walking through the narrow hallways of the Elyxion, they don’t comment on it.

Chanyeol’s wrist-com beeps again, and this time the Caprian presses the respond button with an eye roll.

“Yeah, yeah, you big caffeine-addicted baby. We’re on our way.”

“We?” Comes Minseok’s voice, choppy and metallic.

“Yeah, Jongdae’s coming along. He… he needed to walk and clear his head either way.” 

Minseok’s hums as a response, knowing exactly what Chanyeol meant with his words, and chips back again. “Don’t take too long, I can feel my eyes closing on me.”

Jongdae laughs and responds. “Don’t worry, Seokkie, we’ll get you your fill in no time.”

The com disconnects, and they hurry their steps on their trek to the kitchen.

A sweet smell envelops them as they enter the mess hall, the sizzling from the pans audible by the entry, and both Jongdae and Chanyeol turn to face each other with an excited smile on their lips. 

“Kyungsoo!” They both call out in unison, entering the kitchen where, lo and behold, their smaller friend tinkered about on the stove. The scent is more potent the closer they get, and Jongdae eyes a plate with perfectly stacked pancakes on the counter. 

The chef in question turns to face them as his name is called, his face of concentration melting away into a sweet, welcoming smile, and he ushers them inside the kitchen, where two stools are already prepared by the counter, a pot of coffee already brewing. The tattoos covering his body swirl slowly as he cooks, and Jongdae finds himself entranced.

“I saw you come in earlier.” He speaks, voice low and raspy. “Saw you thrashing in bed, figured you might enjoy a little bit of food.”

Jongdae smiles, bashful, and pats the Oracle’s back with unspoken affection. “Thank you.”

“Yeah, he told me you’d be here for a while so I took the liberty to set the cruiser on autopilot.” A voice speaks from the doorway, scratchy and mechanical, steps approaching the kitchen. Jongdae doesn’t need to look up to know that the new addition to their impromptu kitchen party is Minseok.

“Jongin’s naviplans are never wrong, and this is a safe area. I know you like to be in the cockpit at all times, but you need to let yourself rest.”

Chanyeol places a pancake on Jongdae’s plate, loading it with whipped cream and chocolate, and the star smiles in appreciation, tearing his eyes away from Kyungsoo and Minseok’s sudden bout of affectionate display. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” His tone is soft, almost as if to not bother Minseok and Kyungsoo. The Oracle is still diligently flipping pancakes, while the pilot chugs coffee like no tomorrow. It’s odd how someone so artificial can enjoy a beverage so much without needing it, but no one ever comments on it.

They leave Chanyeol and Jongdae alone, for the most part, only sending them side glances every so often, but the star knows what they are thinking.

“It was the same nightmare again.”

An arm wraps around his shoulders, and he doesn’t need to look up from his plate to know it comes from his Caprian friend. “You don’t need to tell us if you don’t want to.”

“No, I... I would like to. It’s like therapy, you know?” Jongdae chuckles and a small, silver hand covers his. Minseok smiles down at him with Kyungsoo in tow. 

“Take your time.” 

Jongdae sighs, inhaling deep and exhaling loudly, and plays with the pancake on his plate. “It was when the Star Hunters got to Altair. When Mom pushed me in the cryo-pod as they exploded the city. That feeling of suffocating on the gel, of being frozen and unable to help. Watching them murder everyone, destroying my home. I couldn’t do anything.”

He doesn’t notice the tears running down his face, he doesn’t notice how his breath starts to pick up, his heart rate skyrocketing with the phantom feeling of helplessness facing the destruction of his home star.

What he does notice is the comforting embrace Chanyeol pulls him in, warm in a special way only the engineer could offer. Jongdae burrows closer and is soon joined by Kyungsoo and Minseok. 

Never has he felt safer, he thinks, as he relishes in the warm hold of his friends. His mind brings him back to when Junmyeon had found his pod, floating aimlessly to the cosmos. How Yixing had fixed him up.

How they’d all accepted him into their small family. 

It’s later that evening, when the clock ticks closer to the time of the rising alarm, that Jongdae voices his gratitude. 

They’ve retreated to Jongdae’s room after filling their bellies with their fair share of pancakes, leaving Minseok and Kyungsoo behind to their devices. Their hands, once more, brushed against each other, as if tugged closer by their own gravitational pull. Yet this time, Jongdae indulged, lacing his fingers with Chanyeol’s. 

Fingers that remain entwined long after they’ve laid down in bed, closer than usual.

“Thank you.” Jongdae murmurs, facing the ceiling. He feels the mattress shift beneath him, Chanyeol laying on his side to face the Star better. 

“What do you mean?”

Jongdae mirrors the other, looking into his white eyes. “For taking me in. For trusting me, for helping me.”

Their voices are hushed, low. Whispered, dripping with sweetness and affection, quiet enough as to not break the little bubble they’ve found themselves in. They’re never quiet; Jongdae and Chanyeol. Yet something about the scenario they’ve found themselves requires this sense of intimacy. Of closeness, of companionship.

Chanyeol’s hand raises to caress the speckled golden freckles that litter Jongdae’s face, stardust on a canvas of smooth skin. “Did you know that back on Terra they’d find shapes in the skies out of stars?”

Jongdae finds himself chuckling, a bit thrown off by the shift in subject. Chanyeol continues, undeterred. “They’d use those shapes to tell stories. Yet, no one ever bothered to ask the stars about their own tales.”

There’s a pause, one where Jongdae can’t bring himself to talk over, instead finding himself hanging onto Chanyeol’s every word, every pause, every breath.

“You have your past, your tales to tell. It’s your choice whether to share it or not. I am lucky enough to be entangled with your present, to have found myself a part of your story. So don’t thank me for that. Instead, give me the pleasure to remain entwined in your future.”

Jongdae smiles, his hand falling over Chanyeol’s, and they gravitate closer.

“You’re a fool if you think I’d be anywhere without you near me. Hold me.”

Chanyeol’s chuckles make something in Jongdae’s chest flare up, and they nestle closer.

“Your wish is my command.”


End file.
